Computers are often linked together through networks to allow the resources of a computer at one location to be utilized by other computers located at different locations. In a distributed environment such as this, computers known as servers often perform various tasks for other computers that communicate with the servers over a network. For instance, a server might enable sharing of files and other resources between the server and other computers, such as a World Wide Web (“web”) server that provides text, graphics, and other resources to client computers over the Internet.
It is often necessary to manage the operation of one or more server computers. For instance, it is often desirable to view management data that provides information regarding the health, operation, or status of a server computer. This is especially true for server computers that maintain resources that are utilized by a large number of client computers or other server computers, such as within a corporate network or the Internet. For many conventional systems, the technician that needs to interact with the servers being managed is required to be physically located at the site of the server. However, it is not always feasible for a technician to be physically present at the location of a server computer.
For example, a system administrator of a corporate network may be present at one location while the servers of the corporate network may be spread around the country or even the globe. To effectively manage the servers on the corporate network, the system administrator must be able to monitor each of the server computers, regardless of their location. Because the system administrator cannot be physically present at each server to be managed, effective management of the server computers becomes very difficult. As a result, it can be very costly to maintain servers located in disparate physical locations.
Some server computers include an integrated or add-in management device that can provide remote access to management data regarding the health, operation, or status of a managed server computer. However, retrieving desired management data from one or more server computers is still a complex and time consuming process for many system administrators. Moreover, it can be very difficult for a system administrator to customize the particular server computers from which management data should be retrieved and the desired management data to be retrieved.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure presented herein has been made.